We lost our first round Cricketer Cup match on Sunday, being well beaten by 84 runs at Bradfield. Bradfield have won the competition twice in the last five years and are invariably very competitive.
On paper, our batting looked far stronger than our bowling but all was well on the keeping front with four potential glovemen to choose from. Losing the toss and being asked to bowl on a very green wicket was a bonus and Bradfield were initially in trouble at 50-4 after 17 overs. Will Rollings bowling ten overs straight with excellent figures of 3-27.
A sensible partnership of 100 followed between opener Boulton (60) and an increasingly fluent Brabham (55). Three quick wickets later and it looked as though we might have re-established control at 173-7 but with fourteen overs remaining and captain Abeed trying to fill twenty overs with part-timers, an eighth wicket partnership of 72 between Ettridge (34) and Williams (38*) set Bradfield up for an above par 255-8. As with last year, extras were a problem (42 of which 33 were wides).
We suffered a similar start to our innings, being reduced to 30-3 after ten overs with Smithson taking 3-21. Michael Burgess then began to show his class and made batting look easy. In partnership with first Will Bovill (15) and then Kent (27) they took the score to 143-4 with twenty overs remaining and confidence was rising that we could reach the target. His removal for 78 was a huge blow and we lacked the lower order batting to continue the chase with the final five wickets going down for the addition of only 28 in eleven overs for a total of 171.
For the Waifs, Brabham and Boulter further enjoyed their day and added to their batting partnership by taking five wickets between them.
Thanks go to Bradfield for their hospitality and to Copey for combining late selection head aches with a wedding in France. Maybe next year…